Destiny
by Meekychunky
Summary: Don't dream it's over: Prolouge
1. Beginnings

Disclaimer~ A vague disclaimer is no ones friend ^_^ 

Author's note~ A little prolouge to the story I am going to start writing... actually it's sort of a mini chapter... I was too lazy to stay up much beyond 1am to finish it. 

She glanced up towards the bright lights of Balamb garden and shook her head in quiet sorrow. So this was her destiny, she had travelled so long and realised so much in such a short space of time. This place was to be her true beginning and it was always going to be her end. She slid her hand through her pale blonde hair, so pale as to be almost colourless, it hung down her back in three long tails. Pale skin glowed in the moonlight and pale blue eyes reguarded Balamb stoically. She sighed... _So be it, I have never been one to fight against a foretelling_. She frowned gently, there was a faint line between fate and destiny... and she knew both of hers, her life was to be a map, one road, one path, no juctions, no turnings. She would be walking it until the day she died, the day she was killed. 

She had looked into a mirror the other day and had not recognised the teenager staring back at her, she was herself, but her eyes were changing, making her different. Just the beginning of the many changes that were to come, she didn't want to walk her path, she was afraid to, afriad that she would always be the fool that people had thought her until so recently... or perhaps... so distantly. Everything was a jumble in her head, she had looked at her image and began to scream out her hate... her loathing at what she was going to become. How could she let herself do what she was going to, that was why she had come here. Had run here. In the hopes of understanding. _I am a fool, why did I think they were going to help me? Why did I think they even could?_ She turned away from garden, white dress billowing slightly in the breeze, the perfect ice maiden. She sighed. 

She turned back. She needed to do this. 

The light that poured onto her skin from the gateway made her half close her eyes against it. She looked at the attendant and he smiled at her, that was always the way, they always smiled at the strange young girl. Before the running and the screaming that was, before her tears of rage. 'Can I help you?' He asked. 

'I would... like to see about training here? Would you know who I should contact?' She asked him softly. 

'That would be me.' A woman said, she turned to the tall woman, dark blonde hair tied up behind her head. She took a breath, she recognised her, a faint fear echoed in her stomach. 'But I must say it's a little late to be enquiring about this kind of thing.' 

'I just arrived here.' She hesistated momentarily, her eyes slightly pleading. 'I had nowhere else to go.' She swallowed and bowed her head. Her faint distress made Quistis' heart lurch, the girl couldn't hold her eyes, she was terrified. She knew what it was like to be alone. 

'Come on child, the time for real questions is tomorrow, what's your name?' Quistis tilted her head, the girl looked up. 

'My father named me Marielle.' She said softly. 'I have others but... I would rather not...' She looked into Quistis' eyes. 

'It's fine, come on Marielle. You must be tired.' Quistis took the youngster around the shoulders but quickly moved away when she stiffened. 'Follow me.' She said smoothly leading the strange girl away.   


Author's note ~ If you want to know who the girl is you're going to have to write nice reviews about this story *giggle* seriously tell me what you think please ^_^ 


	2. Confessions

Disclaimer~ Oranges aren't the only fruit.... It's a disclaimer of sorts ^_^ 

Author's note~ I've decided to try and make this story short so I can get it finished before I go home from Uni for the christmas holidays... k? 

The morning dawned brightly, the kind of morning that made Quistis glad to be alive. She slid into her instructors uniform and decided to leave her hair loose. It billowed in a golden cloud around her head as she walked out of her room, she yanked a few strands behind her ears as she walked across the courtyard to the guest dorms. It was a place that was only slightly more comfortable than the SeeD rooms and the student dorms. She had brought Marielle here last night, it wasn't often that some waif or another turned up on their proverbial doorstep asking to be taken in, but it did happen. She knocked on the girls' door and went in when she didn't receive an answer. The pallid youngster was curled up on the bed asleep, at least she thought she was asleep, she couldn't even see her breathing. She walked across and put her hand on the girls shoulder. She smiled as her eyes fluttered open and a large yawn cracked on her face. 'Good morning.' Quistis said smoothly. 

Marielle sat up quickly, her eyes going from dreamy to hunted in the space of two seconds, they darted around without her moving her head to take in her surroundings. She nodded slowly, remembering where she was. Whatever childhood trauma this kid had undergone Quistis felt for her. They would find out what brought her here in a while, she had asked Squall to assist her with this interview. 'Good morning...' Marielle said quietly. She stood up and looked at Quistis expectantly. 

'Well, let's get you some breakfast and then we'll have that interview I told you about last night.' 

* 

Marielle watched Quistis from the corner of her eye throughout her breakfast. Several people, students and SeeDs came up to talk to her, but it was this woman that held her attention. Marielle shovelled food into her mouth like it was going out of fashion. She hadn't eaten for a while, it was surprising how much was taken out of her by her arrival here. It was only when a young dark haired woman walked into the room that she lifted her eyes away from Quistis. She was smiling and looked supremely confident, as she should be, the power that radiated from her every pore made Marielle's head spin. She looked away and began to breath deeply, the last person who had weilded that power had come close to destroying her. She began to eat, methodically, chewing and swallowing but not tasting. She felt the womans presence coming towards them before she actually saw her. 

'Heya Quisty. Not eating again.' Quistis Trepe had gone for her normal breakfast treat of coffee. The woman bit into an apple and grinned. 

'Morning Rinoa, could I introduce you to Marielle, she's thinking of joining us here at Balamb...' Rinoa held her hand out to her with a slight frown on her face. 'Marielle, this is Rinoa.' Marielle nodded. 

'Of course you would be.' Marielle said and then blinked. 'Sorry, I'm pleased to meet you.' She took her hand and both stared at each other as the connection was made. The apple fell out of Rinoa's hand and shattered against the floor. They dropped each others hand and Rinoa took a shuddering breath, then another. Marielle bowed her head. Quistis stared at the pair of them both in a frozen tableu. 

'Are you okay?' She asked Rinoa, who turned to her, eyes a bit surprised. 

'Umm, yeah. Don't worry, I think my powers are going a bit squiffy today. They woke me up last night.' She shook her head and cast a speculative gaze at Marielle's bowed head. 'No big deal, I'm gonna have to learn something new to keep them occupied, other wise they continue to complain.' She recovered her aplomb and made her excuses, leaving. 

'Come on, I'm sure Squall is waiting for us.' Quistis told her. 

* 

Marielle still felt the itch that ran down her spine from where Rinoa had touched her. She had never expected that, mind you she had never touched another soceress before unless it was in anger... or pain... or horror. She closed her heavy lidded eyes against her pain, filing it away in her heart, waiting for the right moment to deal with it, for a time when she could stop running. When she could turn and face the people who took her for a monster. Quistis was sat across from her, she would be one of those who believed her for a fiend. She swallowed. The man that walked into the room intimidated her more than anyone else had the ability to, the smile on his face didn't fit, wasn't quite natural. 

'Welcome to Balamb, Marielle. Quistis tells me that you would like to come here to train.' Marielle nodded. 'But she didn't say what for exactly... Care to fill me in?' Marielle was stumped. 

'Everybody needs something to cling to when they've lost all that mattered to them.' Was all she could think to say, the sudden compassion in his eyes made her feel nervous. 

'What brought you to choose Balamb?' He asked her, she pondered what to say with a slight frown on her face, she decided to give him a version of the truth. Soceresses, such as they were, were beginning to come out of the woodwork after the time compression... she knew this. They weren't intimidated now, they were respected. 

'My father was murdered by a soceress because he dared to try and save me.' She shook her head, not dropping her icey eyes from his. He nodded coldly. 

'We aren't a vengence kick for everyone with a grudge against a soceress you know.' He told her. 'I sympathise with your plight, I really do...' He seemed at a loss for words. 

'I'm not going to go after any soceress I see, she's dead now, I killed her.' She lifted her chin arrogently, she couldn't let him beat her, but her heart knew that he already had done so once. He nodded and then frowned. 

'But that would mean...' He trailed off and she sighed, then nodded. 'Oh.... So you're looking for a place to hide?' 

'No... I'm looking for a place to be taught... a place that doesn't revile me because of something that isn't my fault... I'm trying to understand... Getting nowhere fast on that respect, but I'll try...' She trailed off and he looked at her appraisingly. 

'You want Rinoa to teach you?' He asked her. 'One sorceress to another?' She shook her head. 

'I'd not ask that off of anyone... It's a soceress eat soceress world out there, or it will be.' She shook her head, she was sharing too much, better for them not to know... better for herself that they didn't know. His face warred with two emotions, worry and compassion. 'I understand why that would worry you... you being a soceress' knight and everything. I will understand if you say no. But I would give anything for some deliverence. Anything.' His face gave away nothing but she could see the fight in him, there was an obvious attraction to the path of least resistance... to keep her away from Rinoa. But he felt sorry for her too... He saw a lot of himself in her, strange considering what she was. 

'Why didn't you tell Quistis you were a soceress?' She shrugged. 

'It was so much easier not to.' She bowed her head and Squall felt a small peice of apprehension lift from him, she wasn't here with some covert plan, she was just a lost frightened fourteen year old girl. One that had killed... he ignored the small voice in the back of his head. She watched him quietly as he struggled, this was one internal fight she refused to impose her will on, the one aspect of her talent she had managed to master. He nodded. 

'Fill in the forms and we'll accept you as a student here.' She nodded quietly. 

* 

Squall looked around as Rinoa came in through the door that Marielle had just left through. She looked at them questioningly. Quistis sighed. 'She's a soceress.' Was all she said. 

'Oh I thought so... just two seconds spent touching her made me feel as though all my bones had fused together. It was weird.' Rinoa looked at Squall. 'So... She coming here?' Squall nodded. 'Good... I want that one where I can keep an eye on her. She's not right.' Rinoa grinned at her own words and laughed self depricatingly. 'Maybe she's a bit young, whatever power she had was a bit wild, not yet tamed.' It had taken Rinoa five years to get her sorcery honed to the level she had, she was just beginning to sense it in others, Edea was pleased with her progress. 

Squall picked up Marielle's papers. 'Well one thing is for sure... Marielle Taymar is one of our special cases.' 

* 

Marielle sat in the darkness of her room that night, tears sliding gently down her cheeks, well they had accepted her, grudgingly but they had accepted her. It had been so long since she had felt that, she had been totally honest during that interview, but lying by omission was still a lie. She was frustrated by the corruptness in her soul, it already had begun and she was frightened of her apathy towards it. Somthing inside her had shifted in the last day, she would be lying if she said that meeting had left her completely unscathed. She had seen the look in his eyes when he had said she could come to Balamb, she had been utterly threatened in a glance. And instead of making her feel slightly cowed, inside she had risen to the challenge, it wasn't where she wanted to be, she was supposed to come here to fight against her destiny, not to fulfill it. 

Marielle switched on her light and walked towards the mirror, she looked into it and nodded sadly. The changes were beginning, she was being made different. 

Her eyes had gone white. 


	3. Irony

Claimer~ I stake my claim to the world and all you mere mortals thereon. 

Author's note~ I'm leaving University tomorrow for the Christmas Hols... (I get a whole month off) My dad wouldn't come and pick me up so I have to leave my computer behind :-( I probably won't be posting up any fics over the month that I don't have to be here... so I'm finishing this one off very quickly, it's not how I would have liked to finish it but you can't help that ^_^ So... imagine that Marielle has been at Balamb for several weeks and she and Rinoa have been training together. 

Rinoa reached deep inside, the spells rushed to meet her touch as she breathed them in. Her skin began to tingle as she tried to combine them, as the threads of the spells began to get more combined and complex they became slippery, she couldn't grasp them. As the spells lost cohesion she was glad it was shell that cast itself first, it protected her from the small explosion that got triggered when the slow and float spells met each other. The shriek of frustration that rose in her throat came unbidden, it wasn't the first time that day she had ended up floating upside down in midair. It was just unfortunate that it was Zell who had heard her and came to see if she was okay. A small smile touched his lips as he cast dispel on her. His first rush of laughter came as her head slammed down on the wooden floor. She stood up and held the rapidly rising bump. 'It's not funny.' 

'What were you doing?' He asked, the smile on his face growing wider. 

'Bit complex... it was a spell I felt cast a few days back, it combined together shell, float and slow... It did something and I just can't figure out what it is supposed to do.' He nodded and frowned. 

'Marielle?' Rinoa shrugged. 'I mean you said she has a lot of power... is it possible she could do something you can't?' Rinoa frowned, why didn't she like the sound of that? 

'She tells me she's been a soceress for a little under a year, it's unlikely, but spell combining might be her talent...' She frowned, her own talents had taken a little longer to manifest and they had been along the line of Edea's, because she was the principal person who had bequeathed her power to Rinoa, nobody had ever discovered Adel's talents... except for being able to use the forbidden magics freely. That was one aspect Rinoa would have liked to have gained, unfortunately it wasn't to be. 

'She's a very complex little girl... if only she would snap out of that childish melancholy...' Rinoa interrupted him. 

'Just because she is a child, doesn't mean that the things she feels are childish... I personally think she is doing remarkably well for someone who has just lost her father.' Zell grimaced. 

'Okay, consider me suitably told off.' He told her. 'Speaking of Marielle, didn't you have to talk to her today?' Rinoa glanced at the time, winced and ran out the door. 

* 

Marielle stared at herself in the mirror, she got paler everyday, almost as if she were disappearing. She was almost a ghost of her former self. She remembered the days when she had been a robust child with dark colouring to her face. It seemed as though the world wanted her to be different, she was being drained of colour so that the world could paint her the way it wanted. The people in the corridor walked past her and stared, if they had known her they would have run, they would have screamed. She smiled and wondered just how many would lose control of their bowels. She looked up at the knock, she knew it was Rinoa, the ability was strong in her, for a sorceress that only had the combined power of two others. They had quickly become friends. The woman came in through the door and smiled, then she glanced at the book open on her bed. 'You reading about Ultimecia?' She asked and Marielle nodded. 'It's not wise to think too much on her... not for a sorceress anyway...' 

'It's not something I can help I'm afraid.' Marielle told her with a slight sigh. 

'The woman was evil Marielle, don't judge all soceresses by that woman.' She smiled and Marielle thought it was supposed to be reassuring. 

'But what made her... will make her I suppose... as she's from the future. What made her evil? What events in her life will bring about this desire to destroy all mankind?' Rinoa raised her eyebrows at the girl and a thoughtful look passed across her face. 

'I never thought about it that way I guess, all I could do was try and save time. Save the people I loved. Perhaps she never found any kindness in her life?' 

'No, there is kindness everywhere... Do you believe in destiny?' Marielle's stark white eyes turned to her. 

'No, I can't, we make our own future.' Rinoa stated clearly. 

'But... Surely there are some things that are just meant to be... like Ultimecia. Some time in the future a girl has to be born and a certain set of circumstances befall her, she'll begin to hate the world... she will be Ultimecia. It's is predetermined because it is part of _this times_ history.' Rinoa couldn't say anything. She was right of course. 'You can't do anything to change that girls future because it's part of your past. She has no choice but to become what you made her.' Rinoa frowned. 

'Time is a linear feature. I can't affect the future. I don't know where I would be if we didn't face Ultimecia.' She shrugged. 'It's hard to think of that woman as a human being.' 

'Time isn't linear, it's just a jumble of events with a continuum that keeps it from all bumping together. How else could Ultimecia reach back to the past... or Ellone for that matter.' She looked at Rinoa pointedly and then flushed, it was the only touch of colour she had ever seen on the girls face. 'I sort of have a time sense, it's part of my power.' Rinoa smiled and nodded, finally understanding. 

'I see. You can't mess about with the past you know?' She said to her. 

'I know that... It's all about determinism and causality.' She shook her head. 'Come on, I want to practice.' Rinoa grinned and led her out into the courtyard. 

* 

Every time the two women practiced a large crowd gathered, for the most part nothing could be seen, all that they knew was the two women were fending off each others defenses. But occasionally colours and bright flashing lights surrounded them in a shower of rain, or lightening crackled off them in sparkling patterns. When their training really began to hot up it was fairly difficult to be around them because of the bright white lights, the rouge lightening bolts, the intense heat and the freezing cold. Becuase of this Squall had restricted everyone apart from his friends from actually watching. The whole group had turned out for this one, it was normally only Irvine and Quistis that bothered turning up, but they were training in the quad and Selphie wanted to make sure her garden festival decorations weren't damaged and Zell had decided to eat his lunch there. Squall still didn't trust Marielle... there was something strange about her. 

Marielle was busy fending off Rinoa's attacks and she was getting frustrated, because everytime she threw something at the woman it was turned back at her double force. It wasn't supposed to be this way, she was so much stronger than this woman. Marielle stopped and straightened, she began to lift her hand very slowly, her white eyes began to throb. Something wasn't right, they all felt it, they began to stand up in unease. Rinoa shook her head and started to back away. The bright light that began to gather at the teenagers fingertips lit her colourless face up like a becon, she was no longer controlling what she was doing, merely acting on instinct. She cast glowing eyes heavenward and let her hand fall to point at Rinoa. They all recognised the ultima spell when they saw it. As the bright pale green bubble began to rise up to envelop Rinoa, the rushing sound silenced their ears. Nobody could hear Squall shouting for Rinoa. Nobody except for Marielle, who stood outside the spell. She could feel herself doing this unspeakable thing, this woman was her friend, as much a friend as she had in her whole life. A woman that would eventually be part of the group that would cause her death. The tears that began to well up in her eyes drowned out the blurred out the image of the screaming woman. 

She let the spell drop... and tried to blink away the after image the light had left her with. She barely felt it when Squall's gunblade slid into her hip. Her head smashed on the concrete tiles that covered the quad and she groaned. She looked up and met Squall's eyes, he was being held away from her by Quistis, he was screaming something, but Marielle couldn't understand what he was saying, it was possible he was yelling something incoherently, but she doubted it. She cast mighty barrier around herself and tried to crawl away from him, the blood slid slicky down her thigh. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to move, she had never known real physical pain before and it frightened her. It was Rinoa's voice that cut through the silent din in her head. 

'_Stop!_' She cried out, Zell was helping her up, ultima never left a mark, it hurt you from the inside. Squall turned to look at her without words he closed the gap between them in three strides, crushing her against his chest. She accepted it for a moment and them made him let her go. The steps she took towards Marielle were uncertain. She knelt down next to the weeping child, because in spite of this, she was a child. 'I thought there was something familiar about you.' She told her. 

'I'm sorry, I never meant to.' She whispered. 'I didn't come back to hurt you.' Rinoa shook her head and turned to look at Squall and the others. 

'She's Ultimecia.' Was all she said to them, their reactions were a mixture of fear and surprise and anger. 

'No.' She wailed. 'I'm not her yet. I don't want to be.' She pushed herself to her knees and buried her face into her hands. 

'I don't understand.' Zell said. 'She's a kid.' 

'I don't get why she came here. She should have known what would happen if she came here.' Irvine said taking a sight down the barrel of his gun. Rinoa stood between them. 'You can't be serious Rinoa, she's a killer.' 

'She's a child, she hasn't done any of the things she will do that makes us kill her.' Rinoa knelt next to the girl. 'I'm sure you had a reason for coming to us.' 

'I did... I wanted your help.' Selphie snorted in disbelief. 'I just wanted to know... how I come to be the way I will be, I thought that coming here might let me know.' She shook her head. 'It was after the seventh time they tried to kill me, I couldn't deal with it, all the people in the future have done is tried to foist on me all this pain and suffering.' She sighed. 'I don't know how to explain. My mother was a sorceress, one of your line actually Rinoa, she died last year. I got her power, it's been that way for generations. From that point all I have done is run and hide. I know what I'm going to become, but... I can't just let them kill me. I thought you might know... I thought you might know what makes me evil.' Squall frowned. 

'How are we supposed to know... we met you for an hour? Why did you come to the people who kill you? If you are so concerned about everyone else... why don't you kill yourself?' He titled his head at her. 

'How would you feel if I did? I'm only fourteen, I don't want to die... I've done nothing wrong... Not yet. You can't know what it's like for me... I know I'm going to grow up into this twisted monster... And I'm going to foist on pain and anger and hate to everyone I meet for years to come. The worst part of that is _not_ that I'm going to offer an ugly death to every soul that comes into contact with mine. The worst part is that I'm going to do it with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart. Look at me, even now I'm changing into what I'm due to become. I have the power of twelve different sorceress inside me now, when I go against you it will be more like twenty. I'm so frightened of you, how would you feel if you spent time with your murderers? Why did this happen to me? Why?' She screamed out in pain and rage and hurt that was way beyond her ability to control, greif poured out of her in a torrent. Rinoa reached her hand out and laid it on her shoulder until the girl subsided into tears. 

'My mother once told me that we are the sum of all our yesterdays and the hope of all our tomorrows. You don't know how your tomorrow is going to deal you. I forgive you for what you are going to do.' 

'I've tried so hard to be good.' The youngster whimpered. 

'When you stop trying that's when you become Ultimecia. But right now... you are Marielle. Try and hold on to her for as long as you can.' Marielle nodded. 

'I guess I should go back.' She said to them. 

'Ya think?' Zell asked ironically. 

'I'm sorry, you know, I trained to be a SeeD in the future. It's how they realised who I was going to become. They threw me out and began the hunt. I'm sorry. It's hard.' She sighed. 

'You guys seriously aren't going to let her go are you?' Irvine asked. 

'I won't stop her, we've already beaten her Irvine. She's known that since she found out who she was. All she did was go down fighting. She's already done all the damage she can, nothing we do will hurt her. She can't die... I believe in destiny Marielle, at least I do now, I believe in yours.' Rinoa looked at her sympathetically. 

'You should believe in yours as well.... Your life is part of my history... But don't let fate push you around.' She cast a cure on herself and the wound Squall inflicted was healed slightly. She inclined her head at Rinoa. 'One of us had to fall... I'm glad it was me.' She shook her head and began to draw in three spells. Rinoa smiled, float, shell and haste, presumably the last combination brought her back to her past, this would speed her to the future. The float spell triggered first, then shell and haste combined to create a vortex. Marielle was sucked through it with an unlikely speed. When it winked out Rinoa sighed.... 

'So that's how she did it.' 

* 

Marielle spilled out the other end and the float spell kept her from breaking her neck, it had taken her weeks to figure out that half of the spell. She looked upwards in a daze, when she focused she began to scream. Two Odine bracelets were forced around her wrists and she squealed higher as her power was cut off from her. 'Sorceress Ultimecia, for atrocities you will commit SeeD will hold you in it's maximum security prison, where you will undergo a series of tests to minimise your power. Welcome home.' The SeeD sneered at her and she began to sob. _How did they know? How did they know?_ She repeated like a mantra as she was carried off as a prisoner to a place where they tested her to her limits, where they broke her. It was alone in her cell in the dark of night when her heart began to turn black, where her thoughts turned bloody. She struggled with the Odine braclets, knowing that one day she would be free, she may be killed but nobody would ever cage her again. SeeD created the very thing it was fighting against. Every night Marielle asked herself how they knew that she would be arriving back in the site of old Balamb garden. It was years before she figured it out, even more years before she got the evidence in her hands, a precious keepsake from the age of heroes. 

* 

Rinoa sat down at her desk and opened her diary.   


Author's note~ Argh... if I had, had the time it would have been better than this, I had the twists and clues all mapped out... Oh well, that what comes from not having enough time. C'est la vie. Sorry it was so rushed, hope you liked the idea anyway ^_^   
See you guys after new year sometime. Thanks for reading Merry Christmas and a happy new year... or at least a better one.   
Marilyn/ Meekychunky 


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